Sweet spots: chocolate cafés open in Ottawa

Manager Samy Kadoch with an order of Sharing Sharing for Two or More, a chocolate extravaganza that includes a quarter of chocolate pizza, served hot, a banana-split waffle, brownie bits, chocolate wafers, chocolate-coated cereal, chocolate-covered ice cream, marshmallows for grilling at your table, and a milk chocolate fondue for dipping.Pat McGrath / Ottawa Citizen

This week, Cacao 70, a Montreal company, opened a new chocolate bistro on William Street in the ByWard Market, the first of its kind outside Quebec.

While the menu does include some sandwiches and salads, mostly it is all about chocolate: chocolate crêpes, chocolate fondues, chocolate pizzas, chocolate ice cream volcanoes, chocolate-chunk oatmeal topped with melted chocolate for breakfast and, once it gets a liquor licence, even chocolate beer. You can sample chocolate from more than a dozen countries — everything from 31-per-cent French-style white chocolate to 75-per-cent chocolate from Tanzania — then make your own hot chocolate with your favourite type of chocolate melted to order and a side of steamed milk.

Cacao 70’s “Sharing Sharing for Two or More” ($31.95) is a chocolate extravaganza, including a quarter of chocolate pizza, served hot, a banana-split waffle, brownie bits, chocolate wafers, chocolate-coated cereal, chocolate-covered ice cream, marshmallows for grilling at your table, and a milk chocolate fondue for dipping.

“People come with a bunch of friends, but they also come alone to enjoy some chocolate while they study,” says manager Samy Kadoch, who previously worked at a Cacao 70 bistro on Montreal’s Sainte Catherine Street. “We have Wi-Fi.”

Just a few blocks away, on Rideau Street at Nicholas, Nestlé Toll House opened quietly last month and a grand opening is planned in the next few weeks. Capitalizing on a famous American chocolate-chip cookie recipe, the café features a half dozen flavours of fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies, ice-cream sandwiches, sundaes, brownies and hot chocolate.

The Rideau Street Toll House franchise is the third to come to Ottawa, with ones opening in Barrhaven and Kanata in the past year, and plans to open another in Westboro, at 111 Richmond Rd., this fall.

“We’re also hoping to open one at Lansdowne,” says Moe Falah, owner of the Rideau Street franchise. “There could be 10 in Ottawa soon.”

Chocolate appeals to all demographics, says Kadoch.

“People are starting to realize that chocolate — the good, dark kind — is actually good for you.”

Meanwhile, A Thing for Chocolate, a chocolate café that opened on Wellington Street West in January, now has a 96 per cent rating on the restaurant-rating website Urban Spoon.

“Business has been great,” says owner Omar Fares. “Interest in chocolate is big time. It’s quality chocolate that people are looking for now. I get requests for 70-per-cent, 72-per-cent, dark chocolate.”

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